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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28049535">Always Greener</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderfully_dead/pseuds/wonderfully_dead'>wonderfully_dead</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Loneliness, Psychological Horror, Religious Imagery &amp; Symbolism, Unhealthy Relationships, am i winging it, bruh what are these tags lmao, wait what what’s that tag i don’t know what you’re talking about, yep</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:27:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,069</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28049535</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderfully_dead/pseuds/wonderfully_dead</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Axis was always eager to find someone to speak to, someone beyond his plants that he wouldn’t find a way to free themselves from his company.</p><p>His new neighbor was a little eccentric, but so was he. They could be friends!</p><p>They could.</p><p>Or.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>all platonic here let’s go gamers</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Always Greener</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Brown was starting to make him sick.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Dirt had always managed to worm its way under Axis’s fingernails, despite his (admittedly rather half - hearted) attempts to scrub them clean. From playful fights in a cloud of dust to digging holes with no recalled purpose, that dark, all - knowing brown was a consistency in life that he looked back upon fondly.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This, </span>
  </em>
  <span>though?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>This was not </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>brown.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The brown he’d been idly gazing at was a sickly sort of tint, almost yellow, coating the edges of a petal. It reminded him of rot and dryness, and the crumbling ends of the fragile flower he was holding only confirmed that for him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Fickle things, colors. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>With a sigh, Axis reluctantly stood up, letting out an involuntary groan at the agitated creak of his knees. It was getting harder to spend long days out in the garden, though he wasn’t exactly accomplishing much else.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He squinted in the afternoon sun as he walked, struggling to recall anything definite through the exhausted haze clouding his mind. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’d bought the seeds for those flowers… two months ago? Three? He couldn’t recall much from when he’d purchased them, too enraptured in his own little petty retaliation after one of his tomato plants had been sampled by a deer. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’d taken the brightest flower on the seed packet and planted them in their perfect little row. He’d waited for months as they grew and staked out during the night, all to prevent anything from praying on his plants.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Look where that got you,” he chuckled, tone betraying his playful annoyance. “All that protection and they’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>still</span>
  </em>
  <span> dying.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He’d never been much acquainted with flowers. Most of what he’d learned had come from his parents, and they relied on crops they could eat to survive. There were probably instructions on the packet he could have used, in hindsight, but he’d decided to wing it. He wasn’t much good at doing things out of his allotted skills, anyway.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(He’d heard once, from the lilting tone of his mother in a rocking chair, that flowers carried symbolism with them, that each one meant something different.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(She wilted before she ever found her own.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Axis sped up his pace despite the aching jabs in his leg as he neared the house. Probably something he’d regret later on, he reasoned, but he could already feel the release of a hot shower the faster he -</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span> And.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Yet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The glimmer of a white van caught his attention.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Axis turned to the house on his right, foul mood briefly forgotten, and he stepped closer, fascinated.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The house next to his had been abandoned for years, though the reason behind its emptiness he was still unsure. He liked to think it was haunted by a rather miffed gardener who hurt everyone’s plants.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Narrowing his eyes through the sun’s glare, he could now confirm that the van was for moving. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(Well, the boxes confirmed that, anyway. Even he wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>dull.)</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Doing his best to look like he was casually strolling to his house and not shamelessly spying on an incoming neighbor, Axis maneuvered ever so slightly closer, slowing down his pace to hopefully get a closer look at the new arrival without being noticed.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Pretty sneaky, if he did say so himself.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sure enough, someone stepped out from behind the van not wearing the brown (nauseating) uniforms of the movers and he leaned in with excitement. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(God, did this make him look like a gossip? He… he wasn’t, not really. It’d just been so </span>
  <em>
    <span>long </span>
  </em>
  <span>since he’d seen new faces around here. A new perspective made him giddy. New potential made him grin).</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A man in a crisp white suit stepped out, boxes in hand, and despite everything in him Axis couldn’t help but stare.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He looked to be in his thirties, clean - shaven, with a pointed jawline and firm lip that made him look like he was the CEO of some large real estate company. His glossed, smooth black hair jetting back near picturesque in shape didn’t really help the image either.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A part of Axis longed to run up to the man, ask for his name, invite him over, and declare the two of them friends. He knew it was a rather childish way of thinking, but everyone around here was so quiet all the time and it frustrated him to no end?</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He turned towards his own house, frustrated. Friendships used to bloom in such a laughably easy fashion, didn’t they? A yelling match, a shared assignment - it hardly took much effort at all.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Now, though, they seemed so difficult to cultivate, an anomaly he couldn’t understand. Life just seemed to clutter the path of everyone around him so much that they couldn’t branch out beyond their designated surroundings. They’d keep to a few close friends they already knew and never go farther with anyone else.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It left him clinging for anything, like a root dug into dry ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>At last, he took a deep breath, took off his gloves, and marched over to his new neighbor. He had to say hi, at least. To just walk away from them without even bothering to try and spring up a conversation was rather impolite.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The other man spotted him almost immediately and set down his box with ease, leaning against the van as the movers took out the rest. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>His throat felt much drier than it was a moment ago, and his hand twitched instinctively towards his face. He tended to stroke his chin while nervous, a rather irritating habit when you’re doing your best to not look like an annoying piece of shit on your end of a conversation.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After several uncomfortable seconds of internal debate, he decided to just keep his distance for now and waved awkwardly. As painfully pathetic as it must have looked, eagerly inviting someone over to see your shit home and shittier plants was probably not the best first impression.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>The man froze for a second, as if contemplating. Slowly, he raised his own</span>
</p><p>
  <span>hand up and waved, mouth quirked up in a confused smile like he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with it. </span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And, well, that was good enough for him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Axis turned to his house with an uncontrollable grin. He’d won a first meeting today, and tomorrow he’d win a name.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>(And in between the two, a wilted flower suddenly burst into bloom).</span>
</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
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</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>bruh my content’s just a mess lmao</p><p>i’m gonna be posting some mp100 stuff by the end of  month this is just another thing i’m working on because i really like what i’ve got planned for this bad boy</p><p>strap in.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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